Food Genetics – More Talking Points
(December 5, 2018) In the previous article I went through some of the talking points advanced by supporters of privatization under the “Seed Value Creation/Seed Synergy” consultations. I also posted a useful background article by a friend and colleague. In order to frighten farmers much has been made of the fact the Harper government went on a destructive rampage at Agriculture and...
Read MoreEnd of Wheat Board marks end of frontier values of cooperation and equality
(August 1, 2017) The end of the Canadian Wheat Board five years ago certainly proves that unregulated capitalism works very effectively for the powerful and well organized. Declining numbers and increasing debt show it does not work for farmers. The CWB was a hybrid organization providing farmers with collective bargaining power, a professional standards association, and a world-wide reputation...
Read MoreThe year farms got smaller
(January 4, 2017) Like an old Queen once said of another year, 2016 was an Annus horribilis for most prairie farmers. Bumper crops ended up snowed under or degraded by excessive rainfall. The pull-type combine made a comeback with many farmers adding a four wheel drive tractor on standby to rescue combines stuck in the mud. But hey, when not stuck in the mud or buried in snow, the yields...
Read MoreRailways want farmers to put the free in their enterprise – again
(November 26, 2016) The latest news is the railways want somebody, anybody, to give them new grain hopper cars. Prairie farmers with unimpaired memories may be forgiven for having a sense of been there, done that. In recent days Cargill has been touring some western farmers around its Vancouver terminal. They’ve been fed a steady drip of anxiety about how old the hopper car fleet is and...
Read MoreCon Ag Minister blowing fumes
(Oct. 15/15) The Manitoba Cooperator is carrying a story (Grain backlog no impact on farm incomes: Ritz) quoting Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz ridiculing the latest independent academic study showing farmers would have been billions of dollars better off if they still had the single-desk Canadian Wheat Board. Astoundingly, Ritz claims farmers never lost money. Wasn’t it just last year...
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